Detecting in the rain.

[ProspectorPete]

Well......about to head off for the day, just checked the Bom radar loop and the big band of rain is just the other side of Traralgon heading S/E, hopefully dodged a bullet today with the rain but we had plenty last night to soak the ground.
Anticipation is up and the Miner John 9x5 folded Mono is ready for action.
I shall return to show you all that I can ping bottle tops, ring pulls and lead shot 2" deeper in wet ground :lol:
Fingers crosses for my first picker too

 

[Jaros]

We wanna see "Gold!!" in your hands Pete. Good luck.
Jaros

 

[ProspectorPete]

Ha, no rain and even got some sunshine after lunch, the ground looked soaked until trying to dig a target. As soon as we scraped the surface it was dry and hard underneath.
Detected up to midday without success so went for a wander up the track for about 1km, located a new area with old diggings and decided to pan/sluice in the tiny creek.
First test pan from the top layer on inside bend showed one good spec, after several buckets classified and run through the sluice from a 1x1m hole we had our best gold tally yet, more that what we got from our previous 4 trips in total, not a lot but bigger chunkier gold than our usual spot so the day turned out a total surprise with a new location to work over the next few months.

 

[Guest]

Awesome Pete,

Thats what I finding too now, the more trips to an area the more you "SEE" and the more areas there are to try.

Good work, there are no shortcuts in this hobby the more time put in the "luckier" you get.

Pics please,when you get a chance.

Regards.

RS

 

[ProspectorPete]

Thanks RS, so true about the SEE more thing, been hitting this area a few times for little reward but we know down further they do well, we wanted to find our own area so have persevered a lot further up and now I think it's going to pay dividends for our efforts.
I took a couple of pick this morning and this is only my half as we split it 50/50, hard to get good focus (hence the 2 pic's) and it looks even chunkier up close, they're still only very small but we only sampled 1 hole to just over 2 foot deep and starting to hit blue clay, we estimate there's about 10-15 meters of good area to clean on this particular corner so fingers crossed there's better gold waiting to be liberated. As I was putting them into my vial I found another 7 tiny pieces in the small fine cons on the other side of the pan, now my vial signals when I run the pin pointer over it........finally YA !!

 

[Jaros]

How may grams do reckon Pete??

 

[SCROUNGER]

/Users/trevorhawkins/Desktop/IMG_3221.jpg
Went out for the whole day yesterday to see if the discussion about wet ground did make a difference. Not sure if it was that or i just got lucky but happy with the result with the 2300.

 

[SCROUNGER]

Hope this is better, just used up some brownie points with my wife on this one! Bloody computers!

 

[ProspectorPete]

How may grams do reckon Pete??

Not sure Jaros but sub gram in total, I bought a pack of five 1 ounce vials and the 4 empties all weigh slightly different so it depends on which I use to tare the scales with, the difference is between .1g - .3g but yeah pretty sure I haven't cracked my first gram yet, things are starting to look up though so hopefully by the end of the year I'll have a healthier looking vial, emptier looking creek and fingers crossed get my first picker/nugget with a detector, either way it's just fun getting out for the thrill of the chase and any gold is just a bonus.

 

[yobskin]

Nice PP!! Its all in the fun hey. I love the chase too! Hit me ole prospector mode button and let the fun begin....

 

[Tricky Dick]

Well done Pete, awesome finds!
Much better than I did, except I didn't get wet either.
I ended up not even getting the pans out, but did walk through the scout camp at Dallas Brooks Park. There looks to be some good spots along Stoney Creek but I think a 4 stroke might bring some unwanted attention although the park is unattended unless there is an event on.
Cheers
Rich

 

[bmzgold]

Hey The Nugget
Just wondering which F1A4 your using, Stock or Modded (which Mods)
Kind regards
Boyd

 

[Heatho]

I can say after detecting in the rain, cold and wind today it was unpleasant, the mud was the worst part making target recovery difficult and my detector dirty. I much prefer fair weather detecting.

 

[Prospector B]

Here's our gold before we split it, the photo is a bit crappy because I took it on my phone. It was a fantastic day, I think we both went home grinning

 

[ProspectorPete]

Still grinning mate but sore at the same time, we must have walked a fair bit or it was the digging but my right calf has been tight since I got home and nearly cramped a few times but worth every bit of pain.
Can't wait to do it again

 

[The Nugget]

Hey The Nugget
Just wondering which F1A4 your using, Stock or Modded (which Mods)
Kind regards
Boyd

Hey mate, sorry for delay...just saw this comment now!!
Pretty much stock F1A4.....I have a coil adapter from the *bay (looking at changing that as it appears to have an earthing issue). I have modded the audio plug to accept any set of headphones rather than the milspec type. I made a ground balance button and added that in. I looked online and found plenty of diagrams and did all the work myself.
I am using a minleab 11 inch mono coil and the 10 x 5 Joey from coiltek. The joey is awesome with it. In saying all that....I found my first nugget with the standard F1A4 8 inch coil.

Chris